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Dissatisfaction: The Gateway Vice

As of late I’ve been pondering dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction, in my mind, is a gateway vice – a vice that subtly lures you into the whole panoply of vices. It is so subtle, I think, because it hides behind other vices. You spend your time lamenting your lustful heart (or restless, prideful, etc.) and really the root of it is simply dissatisfaction. This is also why control lays at the heart of much vice. Dissatisfaction seeks to control, and most vices are simply sinful attempts to control our fate. Furthermore, it is often subtle because the texture of dissatisfaction arrives before the feeling of it. Verbalizing dissatisfaction with life is often a surprise. “I don’t feel dissatisfied,” might be a natural response.

What makes this vice the gateway for other more nefarious vices is how subtle it is. Under the radar of our hearts dissatisfaction slowly orients our hope to other things. Without recognition, we turn to work and achievement as a way to find satisfaction (or virtually anything else). Dissatisfaction removes our hope from the Lord and places it firmly in our own ability, situation, and power. It grasps for fulfillment in areas that are unable to ultimately fulfill. Dissatisfaction is a heart that has grown tired of faith in the unseen and so it grasps for the seen; it is a heart that loses hope.